Hartford Radio: Feds Say Rowland Sold WTIC Show Influence

John G. Rowland

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they intend to tell a jury that when former Gov. John G. Rowland sold his political consulting services, he was secretly selling the muscle behind his long-running political talk show on WTIC 1080 AM radio, according to the Hartford Courant.

The prosecutors make the assertion in new legal papers filed in advance of Rowland's trial on charges associated with his consulting agreement with former congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley and her husband and financial backer, Brian Foley. The government said it will present evidence that, as part of the deal, Rowland used the radio station to build up Wilson-Foley and annihilate her opponents.

The witness who the government said can make its case is Andrew Roraback, a former state representative and state senator from northwest Connecticut, who now is a Superior Court judge. Roraback, if allowed to testify, is expected to say that he wound up in Rowland's crosshairs because he was one of the candidates competing against Wilson-Foley in the 5th Congressional District Republican primary in 2011 and 2012.

WTIC radio, which hired Rowland following his corruption-related conviction and imprisonment in 2004, declined comment.  Rowland left the station in April, a week before he was indicted.

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